11:30 am ET: Some info from the CCTV discussion before it ended:
- Several instruments on the vehicles are now working such as the ground-penetrating radar
- The rover will hibernate between Dec 16 to 23 to avoid the heat of the lunar noon.
- Lander and rover will hibernate during the two week lunar night.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera site posts images of where they believe the Chang’e 3 landed: Safe On The Surface Of The Moon! – LROC News System
More at
- Color photo of Yutu rover and Chang’e lander, and more on the Chang’e 3 landing site – The Planetary Society
- A New Site to Explore on the Moon – The Once and Future Moon
11:15 am ET: The CCTV program on the lunar mission has apparently ended for today.
NASA has no formal co-operative research interactions with the Chinese lunar program. This statement describes the agency’s current lunar projects and how they might benefit from the Chinese lander and rover: China’s Lunar Lander May Provide Additional Science for NASA Spacecraft – NASA
10:55am ET: Some formal statements were made by Chinese officials about the success of the mission. The control room is enormous compared to what one would see at JPL or JSC today.
10:45 am ET: This image is of the rover as seen by the lander:
10:43 am ET: This image is being distributed around the web:
The first public image of the lander as seen from the Yutu rover.
10:39 am EST: The Yutu rover is expected soon to start sending back pictures of the Chang’e 3 lander. The CCTV site is currently broadcasting coverage of the Chang’e 3 mision: CCTV News Live – CDN Live Streaming – CCTV Program online.
This site has lots of details about the mission: Chang’e 3 Mission Updates – SPACEFLIGHT101
I count at least 50 people in the control room. WOW!